Millennial Co-Worker Learns Important Lesson at Verlo

Millennial Co-Worker Learns Important Lesson at Verlo

Jake-Ruegger.jpgTHIS IS A TRUE story about a young man’s recent discovery that a mattress truly does make a difference in sleep quality.

 

What’s funny is that this guy is actually my co-worker at Verlo, a…um…mattress company.

Let’s start at the beginning

Jacob Ruegger (Jake) works on Verlo’s operations team as the lead support person for SmartWake, Verlo’s recently introduced sleep monitor – which is sort of ironic considering he was sleeping on a mattress that offered very little support.

When Jake, 23, joined Verlo in June 2016, he was a recent Marquette University graduate sleeping on a twin XL mattress. He’d had the mattress since he was a freshman in college – which makes it sound like it was only four years old. However, when he got the mattress, it was already over 40 years old, as it had been his father’s childhood mattress.

Jake Ruegger leaps into bed-1.jpgSure, his elbows and knees dug into his bed, his arms would fall asleep and he’d wake up groggy. But hey, Jake was young and said he could sleep on anything: lumpy old mattresses…couches…the floor.

But, dude, your dad’s old mattress?

Once he began working at our MATTRESS company, we all sort of assumed that he would get a new mattress. But as Jake explained, “Getting a new mattress was the last thing on my list. I was a new grad and had a lot of other things I needed to buy – like a car.”

(It should be noted that Verlo does offer “Verlo bucks” to supplement employee purchases, but Jake was saving for other things.)

So, he continued sleeping on his dad’s old mattress, and we continued shaking our heads. (Especially, when he told us about his nightly habit of taking a head-first flying leap into his bed, landing facedown on the shaking mattress and falling asleep that way.)

As part of Jake’s job, each night he uses the SmartWake sleep monitor so that he’s fully equipped to answer all SmartWake support questions. (In addition to its smart alarm clock function, SmartWake measures your sleep and provides sleep statistics, along with a personalized sleep score.) Typically, Jake’s sleep score was a 71 out of 100, which is the ideal sleep score.

Now, I should mention here that Jake is very well liked at Verlo. Besides being a hard worker and having a great personality, he brings a lot of laughter to the rest of us at the office, as we listen to his stories. He’s sort of like everyone’s younger brother here.

Finally: a new mattress and an epiphany

So, it should come as no surprise that when we launched Verlo’s new e-commerce website on January 31st, our staff was delighted to learn that Verlo’s president, Kathy Thornton-Bias, had deemed that our first online order should be Jake’s – compliments of Verlo. In fact, we all clapped when it was announced. (We’re mattress nerds around here.) We were all really happy that Jake would finally be able to experience a Verlo mattress first-hand.

The morning after spending his first night on his new Verlo mattress, we surrounded him and asked how he had slept. (Yes, again, nerds. What can I say? We really care about sleep.)

“My sleep was amazing,” Jake told us. “I did my normal running leap into bed (oh, Jake!) and the mattress didn’t move. No shaking. I lay there and didn’t move the entire night. No tossing and turning. I had no idea what a decent mattress was supposed to feel like, but now I know. I woke up feeling great!”

SmartWake proves Jake is sleeping better

Jakes Sleep ScoreThere’s even evidence of how much better Jake is sleeping now that he has a supportive mattress. Almost immediately, Jake’s SmartWake sleep score improved. In fact, he recently got the best sleep score possible: 100. Sleep nirvana achieved – and our whole team is rooting for him!

Jake readily admitted in a staff email what an eye-opening experience this has been for him:

“Thank you all! As many of you know, it is a major, MAJOR upgrade from my old bed set. This past week has been an amazing experience, sleeping on a “real” mattress. I notice the physical and emotional changes as well. It makes me proud and excited to be part of a company that sells products and services that change the way people sleep, ultimately affecting their lives in a positive manner.”

Imagine that: a mattress changing your life. Yep, we see a real future for you here, Jake.

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